Printing device



July 7,l 1931. v. .1. MOHM-:R 1,812,894

PRINTING DEVICE Filed Aug. 5, 1929 l r x 22| 1 Patented July LT11",ffisvafzn j] 'UNITED STATES PATENTI Aorner,

'VALENTINE J'. 'MOHIERb 'OF RIVER FOREST, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR- TO ADDRESSOGRAPH OF CHICAGO, ILLINOI/S, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE PRINTING DEVICE y 'Application filed August 5,- 1929. Serial No.l 383,60i1.

This invention relates to vprinting devices of that type which comprisea frame and a printing plate having type characters embossed thereon, the platebeing detachably 15 held on theframe by retaining means integral with the frame. The frames may or may not be provided with information cards detachably mounted thereon. The printing de?- vices are largely used for printing addresses,

they are generally stored in drawers in acp cordance with a selected classification system, Aand they are adapted to be fed by hand or automatically to machines for printing. rEhe frames are provided with spacing flanges at 15 their ends and on their backs to space the devices in a drawer or in a stack and to protect the printing faces of the type characters on the plate of one frame from contact with an adjacent frame. When these devices are au# 2e tomatically fed to a printing machine they l are usually emptied from the storage 'drawer directly into the magazine of the machine in a stack and are fed one at a time from the bottom of the stack to and through printing position and are delivered in their regular classified arrangement into the drawer which has been arranged in the machine to receive them. The spacing flanges on one device lie against the face of the next adjacentl device au and serve to clear the devices so that the plate and card and retaining means on one of the printing devices will not catch on the other printing device when one device is caused to slide upon the other in any use of the printet ing devices and especially in the feeding operations above referred to. The retaining means for holding the plate have included spring tongues struck from the frame to l yieldingly hold the plate on the frame and it au has been the general practice heretofore for the operator to use the finger nail for manipulating these spring tongues to permit insertion and removal of the plates, and thisis objectionable to operators because of the lia- 5 bility of damaging the linger nail. rEhe result has been that sometimes operators use any handy tool such as a knife blade, a iinger nail file, orl a screw driver to depress the tongue with the result that the tongue has been rendered inoperative. vTo .avoid this the tongue has been arranged to overlap the spacing flange and the iange has been depressed opposite the tongue to permit suliicient yielding movement of the tongue and to form a stop limiting this yielding movement, as disclosed in Patent No. 1,550,259, August 18, 1925. This patented construction operates satisfactorily in protecting and limiting the movement of the spring tongue, but sometimes the depression on the flange interferes with the movement of one frame upon an oher. This is more apt to happen when frames of different types are mixed together and it may happen when all of the frames are of the same type after they have become deformed by prolonged and careless usage.

Tongues of the frames heretofore used have generally been provided with embossed projections to assist in retaining the plate lon the frame and these projections are necessarily small in size and have been so shaped as to provide little operating surface for receiving pressure to release the tongues with the result, as heretofore indicated, that thc operatorv has been accustomed to use the finger nail or some tool for this purpose.

It is the primary object of my invention to overcome all of the objections hereinbefore mentioned and to provide a printing device of the character described which will not interfere with the 'free movement of one frame upon another in inserting the printing devices in drawers or other storage reeeptacles, or in removing them therefrom, or

in hand or machine feeding operations or in,

any other proper use of the printing devices. Another object of the invention is to pro tect and limit the yielding movement of the' locking tongue of the printing device by means of the spacing flange but without distorting the spacing flange.

And a further object is to provide the locking tongue with an operating surface of j substantial area so that the operator may depress the tongue to permit insertion or renioval of the plate by applying the ball of the thumb or finger thereto.

ln the accompanying drawings l have illustrated a selected embodiment of the invention and referring thereto F ig. l is a front elevation of one type of printing device embodying my invention.

l? ig. 2 is a perspective view of an enel portion of the frame showing a card in place thereon and a plate in operative relation thereto.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-8 of Fig. 2 showing the frame without a plate.

F'g. l is a View similar to Fig. 3 showing a plate partly engaged with the frame. y

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on the lin-e 5 5 of Fig. 2 showing the framewithout a plate.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view on the line 6-6 of Fig. Li.

Referring to the drawings 7 is the frame,

8 is the printing plate, and 9 is the informa-y tion card. rlihe frame is made of sheet metal and it is provided at its ends and on its back with spacing flanges 10, which are made uninterrupt'ed, and on' its front withl plate and card retaining devices including the top and bottom beads ll, the lips l2, the projections 13, and the yielding locking tongues 14, all of which are conveniently stamped from the -body of the frame. rlhe printing plate is valso made of sheet metal and printing characters are embossed thereon and the printing faces lie in a plane above the plane of the re- 40 taining devices. rllhe foregoing features are familiar in printing devices of this type but they are not essential to my invention and may be changed whenever found desirable without limiting or otherwise affecting my invention.

'lhe free ends of the locking tongues oven lap the flanges so that the flanges will always formI a definite stop limiting the inward printing movement of the tongues to permit a plate to bey engaged with a frame or to be removed therefrom. The free en'd of each tongue is formed into a step 15 by bonding` the tongue outwardY from the body of the frame and then substantially parallel with the bodyof the frame so that thisvstepped end of the tongue is arranged to engage that part of the flange immediately back of it. The' flanges 10 space the body of the frames in a drawer or in a stack sufficiently apart to protect the type faces on one frame from engagement with any part o f the next adjacent frame and the danges on one frame are arranged to engage the end portions of the next adjacent frame beyond the retaining devices "E thereon. This provides a clearance for all Leidse@ parts of the frame so that they canbe easily moved one upon the other in any feeding or other operation without any parts catching and without distorting any parts. rlhe flanges are free from distortion throughout their length and the end portions of the frame on the front. thereof are free from obstruction so that the flanges on one frame may slide freely on the front of the next adjacent frame. Stepping the ends of the tongues outward as at 15 elevates the. entire end of the tongue sufficiently to form a stop projection for retaining the end of the plate, F ig. l, and it also permits a sufficient depression of the tongue to engagement with the flange without requiring any distortion of the flange, as will be clearly seen by referring to Figs. 3 and 4. And by making the entire end of the tongue a stop projection enlarged operative surface is provided to be engaged by the ball of the operators thumb o1' linger for depressing the tongue to permit insertion or removal of the. plate. My invention provides a simple and efficient improvement in printing device frames which overcomesthe objections hereinbefore indicated without requiring the addition of any parts or increasing the cost of manufacture or involving any changes in the general construction of frames and plates or in the uses thereof, and this is particularly important because it enables I these printing devices to be used with old printing devices without liability of confusion or interference.

j l have `described the invention in a form which has been found`to be satisfactory for commercial production but it vmay be desirable in adapting the invention to printing devices of other types, or for other reasons, to make ch anges in the detailed construction and arrangement of the parts as shown in the drawings and I reserve the right to make all such changes within the scope of the follow ing claims:

l claim: y

1. A printing device of the class described, comprising a frame, an integral retaining tongue stamped'from the frame, and an uninterrupted spacing flange on the frame at the end thereof, the free end of the tongue being stepped and overlapping the underlying portion of the flange.

2. A printing device of the class described, comprising a frame, an integral retaining tongue stamped from the frame, and an uninterrupted spacing flange -on the frame at the endthereof. the free end of the tongue being offset from the plane of the body of the tongue and lying'in substantially' the plane of the plate and projecting over a portion of' the flange. i

3. A printing device ofthe class described, comprising a. frame having an integral spring tongue stamped therefrom in the plane of the body of the frame, the free end of the tongue being offset above the plane of the body of the frame, and the end portion of the frame being inturned on the back of the frame und extending uninterruptedly transversely thereof and underlying the offset end of the tongue. l

VALENTINE J. MOHLER. 

